The Nine Lives of Zoe Nightshade
by TackAttack
Summary: Or, three of Zoe Nightshade's nine lives. Three oneshots written for Aeron Thana's Color Challenge.
1. Chapter 1

**This is done for Aeron Thana's Color Challenge. The first prompt is Zoë Nightshade, angst, and something red. I chose roses. **

**Number One**

**Hercules**

He descends the mountain, triumphantly holding the golden apple of immortality in his hand. He makes his way toward her, the least assuming of the five sisters who tend the garden. A gold band holds her dark curly hair back, and gold encircles her wrists. The only thing that separates her from mortality is the faint yellow aura around her body. She smiles nervously as he approaches the sprinkling of freckles on her nose crinkling.

He swipes a blooming rose from a nearby bush, clutching in tight in his free hand as he makes his way over to her.

The remaining sisters hide in the bushes to watch the drama.

He drops to his knees before her. He kisses her hand, then presents her with the rose. "For thou, my lady. Thank you for thy help."

A tinge of pink appears on the girl's face.

The eldest sister snorts derisively from her hiding place.

The small girl takes the rose, and says, "Thank you, kind gentleman."

He stands again, whispers a goodbye in her ear, then kisses her briefly on the cheek. Then he slips from the garden.

The hiding sisters wait in silence.

The girl strokes the spot where his lips touched her skin, looking awed and innocent in the large garden.

Then the eldest sister steps out from behind the bushes. "Well, Zoe? What have thou to say for thyself?"

The small girl stumbles backward. "I-I didn't-"

"It's too late, sister. This cannot be ignored again. I'm sorry." She looks at the hundred headed dragon sleeping behind her. "Ladon! Wake!" The heads instantly shoot up, fangs bared, poison dripping from hungry mouths. "This being has broken our laws," the girls intone. "It must be punished."

The smallest girl stumbles backwards, terror evident on her face. "No-no-NO!"

Sheer miracle keeps her alive, and she dashes for the exit of the garden, hitching her robes more firmly around her, sandals flying off her feet in haste, dodging poison spray and heads and necks. Just as she reaches the gateway to the world outside, her sister calls, "Goodbye, sister. Best of luck to thou."

Then the girl ducks under the wreath of flowers, where Ladon cannot follow. Immediately, the sounds and smells from the garden stop, and when she looks back, the garden has ceased to exist. The small girl, barely thirteen in looks, midnight blue robes ripped and torn, smoking with poison, bare feet cut and bleeding, collapses to the unforgiving ground. "Hercules!" she sobs. "Hercules!" She knows he's close, the air crackles like it does when he's around.

But he never comes, and when the night slowly fades into the morning, there's just a small, small girl, clutching a slightly wilted red rose, the last gift from the hero who broke her heart.

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	2. Chapter 2

**Prompt: Zoe Nightshade, Angst, the sun.**

**Number two: The Hunt**

She's unaccustomed to feeling hunger, thirst, cold. In the garden, everything was taken care of without her knowledge or help. She doesn't know _how _to care for herself. She doesn't know what it's like to feel hungry or cold.

When the night brings on freezing winds that cut right through her thin shift, no amount of decorative embroidery can keep her from shivering violently. When time brings on painful pangs of hunger, she merely clutches knees closer to her body.

Wrapped in a tight ball against the rough bark of an olive tree, she survives the night. The thick leaves whisper to her in the wind.

At first, she's too stunned to cry. But as the night passes, pearly tears begin to roll down her face, faster and faster until she's sobbing. _Why _did he leave? She _needs _him, and he isn't coming. She helped _him. _

The betrayal leaves her breathless with it's sheer volume. It feels like someone has just punched her in the gut, knocking the oxygen out of her lungs. She gasps for sustenance in the freezing air, her throat burning.

Time seems to slow, molasses dripping through the hourglass that counts the hours of mortal life. Time ticking away until you die. She's never been so aware of it.

After what feels like forever, the sun starts to peek it's firey head above the Earth, tendrils of light warming the girl's small lithe figure. It's declaring it's presence, proclaiming another day in the history of mankind. Taking it's part in the counting of time.

Someone clears their throat right above the girl. She lifts her head, startled.

Her puffy red eyes squint up at the auburn haired girl standing in front of her. The girl appears to be about the same age as her, and her face looks concerned as she squats down in front of the smaller girl. "Hello," she says. "I am Artemis. Who are thou?"

Too tired to be surprised that the girl is a goddess, she replies. "I am Zoe. Zoe Nightshade. I used to tend the gardens of Hesperides, but I helped the hero Hercules. My sisters found out and banished me from their garden. Now I have no one."

She has no more tears left to cry.

"Ah." Artemis rocks back on her heels. "Would thou wish to join the Hunt?"

She doesn't even have to think about it. "Yes."

The sun marks new beginnings. Today, she has turned her back on her old life of comfort and pleasure and embraced something new. Another day has come, another age. With the sun's rising, so she rises again.

_I pledge myself to the lady Artemis. I turn my back on the company of men, accept eternal maidenhood, and join the Hunt….._


	3. Chapter 3

**Prompt three: Zoë Nightshade, angst, and Percy's eyes.**

**Final Task**

Bianca is gone. The first member of their mission is dead. _One shall be lost in the land without rain. _

She'll be next, she knows this. _And one shall perish by a parent's hand. _

The small girl Artemis recruited eons ago is no more, replaced by a cold, suspicious luteniant who has led the Hunt successfully without Lady Artemis. Who knows Artemis better than possibly her own brother.

Percy sits down across from her in the canoe, and she goes into alert mode. Why did he choose to sit with her? He is a boy; she a Hunter. Surely he knows that she isn't comfortable with the opposite sex.

A distraction comes quickly. The naiads take particular pleasure in torturing her and this time is no exception. A squirt of water hits her in the face and she goes or her bow. "She-devils! They've never forgiven me."

He asks why, and bad memories close her throat up. "It was a long time ago. Never mind."

She almost admires his bluntness. It's refreshing as opposed to the smooth suaveness of most men.

A long time passes before either of them speaks again. She finds herself falling into the green orbs of his eyes. Not romantically, but curiously. She's never met a person that had eyes so deep. Like wells, they are, and you can't help but stare at them, wondering. Because eyes like that definitely aren't human. He blinks, and the thick dark lashes almost get tangled in each other, they're so long. Even _he _didn't have eyes that otherworldly. His eyes were icy, his hair straw and always in a military cut. Percy's much more _loose, _as if he doesn't have a care in the world. Only the look in his eyes gives it away.

She shakes herself. She shouldn't be thinking about this. _Comparing _them. She forces herself to look away.

Then he starts to speak. "What happened to Bianca wasn't your fault. It was mine. I let her go."

A wave of sadness sweeps over her. "No, Percy. I pushed her into going on the quest. I was too anxious. She was a powerful half-blood. She had a kind heart, as well. I-I thought she would be the next luteniant."

Because she's not coming back from this quest. It's her final hurrah, and by the gods, she'll get Lady Artemis and Annabeth back. That's her final task.

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